Process 4: Control and Reporting
Figure 6. Control and reporting
Activities: Control and Reporting
The fourth SMC process, Control and Reporting, involves generating information for the entire IT organization and ensuring that ongoing monitoring is doing its intended job.
This process consists of the following activities:
- Produce reports and statistics.
- Conduct Operational Health management review (MR).
- Plan and execute service improvements.
The following table describes these activities in detail.
Table 7. Activities and Considerations for Control and Reporting
Activities
Considerations
Produce reports and statistics
Key questions:
- What kind of monitoring and control information has been requested?
- What critical success factors (CSFs) and KPIs need to be measured?
- Is the monitoring tool configured to produce the necessary reports and statistics?
- Are there any analysis measures in place?
- How are reports distributed?
Inputs:
- KPI requirements
- CSF requirements
Outputs:
- Reports
- Statistics
Best practices:
- Develop a strong working knowledge about what kind of information is required by other parts of IT.
- Use automatically generated reports wherever possible to save time and labor.
Conduct operational health management review
Key questions:
- In what meeting format are operational health management reviews conducted?
- Who is responsible for running the review?
- What should be on the review agenda?
- Are meetings conducted across IT services, or only with Operations?
- Who provides input for the review?
Input:
- Input to the review agenda from IT Service Manager and key Operations staff
Output:
- List of corrective actions and projects needed to improve the quality of delivered IT services, processes, and technologies (Service Desk and monitoring tools).
Best practice:
- Do not confuse the Operational Health management review with a service alignment management review meeting, where IT management would normally evaluate how well services have been delivered (and whether SLAs have been met). Operational Health management reviews focus on the effectiveness of Operations management. For more information about the Operational Health MR, see the Operate Overview. For more information about the Service Alignment MR, see the Plan Overview.
Plan and execute service improvements
Key questions:
- Which areas need improvement?
- Who is responsible for improved service?
- Are improvements related to:
- People, roles, organizational responsibilities?
- Technologies?
- Processes, procedures, documentation, policies, standards?
- Services, technology upgrades and improvements?
Inputs:
- Reports and statistics
- Feedback gathered at review
Output:
- Service improvement plans
Best practice:
- Follow up to ensure that findings from reviews and reports actually contribute to service improvements.
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